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While there are some terms I lump together with no difference between the two or more (i.e., astral and OBE) in this case, I make an exception.

Here's how I see the difference between the two terms and how I will always use them:

Dying - is a process. It takes time, it often involves pain and extreme fear of losing one's life.

Death - is an event, a single moment. When it happens, everything associated with dying stops. And everything associated with death and the next life begins.

I will state emphatically right now: I am afraid of dying.
And I will state with just as much emphasis: I am not afraid of death.

I have choked on food several times in my life. It's not fun. It's not a beautiful experience. I didn't "separate" from my body to avoid the pain and fear (as some spiritual teachers state happens when people die; I take that to mean when they are about to permanently die, and not survive, and also much later in the dying process.) I felt every second of being unable to breathe, and of trying to get my internal esophageal muscles to work! And I still remember those seconds.

I want to keep living. I'm not ready to leave this life. I still have plenty to do and experience. Dying is not something I'm looking forward to experiencing again.

Sure, some people get it easy. They die in their sleep. They lose their lives without expecting it (heavy object falling from a high space, getting shot in head, breaking neck, brain aneurysm, dying under anesthesia) quickly or without pain because it happens too fast to truly experience.

The rest of us get a longer amount of time to experience dying. This is where the fear comes in. Because we have time to think about it, time for our body to bring forth those fears (and the biochemical process our body creates), and time to experience great pain.

Nobody wants to choke to death, or drown, or go through a heart attack, or be electrocuted, or endure cancer and other debilitating diseases. We tend to skip over all of that because we know that death is easy. Death is beautiful. Death is painless and free of all fears.

I feel that if most people (not necessarily most around here) changed how they thought of dying and death, that more would realize death is what we've all been saying. Dying is the problem and what most truly fear, even if they don't say it that way.

And yes, I know we "shouldn't" have fear. And yet, that lower brain is exceedingly difficult to ignore when in the throes of dying. Honestly, as much as we 'say' we need to be fearless, all of that goes out the window when in such a dire situation. You're not thinking about that. You're really not thinking about much at all (at least for the faster dying events, such as body-damage and problems breathing.) Severe pain tends to blot out thinking, too. We revert to our fearful selves, no matter what.

I've thought that if there was some way to reduce the pain in such situations that we might not fear it as much and be able to accept the situation as it progresses to death. But for many of these ways of dying, it happens faster than any means of chemically, or even mentally, reducing pain. We just have to accept that dying, for the most part, is not a happy process.

Look forward to death all you like. Maybe being as focused on that is what can make the dying part less objectionable ;)

Its almost the same as saying, "It's not the fall that kills you; but the abrupt stop at the end of the fall."

But I suppose in the same sense, when one feels that they are connected to the universe, to Reality, or to Creation in the first place, then one can die in confidence that even though a transformation is impending, they will still remain a component of it anyway - whether its physical materials going here or its Absolute Consciousness going there....

My Uncle was a deeply spiritual man, and he suffered for months from cancer and experienced a great amount of pain before he finally passed away last November...To my knowledge, he was not afraid of his impending death as was very peaceful, loving, and confident till the very end...

So I agree with Lord Viskey...I believe it all depends on one's state of awareness when they are going through the dying process as to whether or not one experiences fear of their impending physical death...

But I suppose in the same sense, when one feels that they are connected to the universe, to Reality, or to Creation in the first place, then one can die in confidence that even though a transformation is impending, they will still remain a component of it anyway - whether its physical materials going here or its Absolute Consciousness going there....

I don't really agree with this. Too many people say they have this almost perfect connection to the Universe and that they won't fear dying, but there are too many ways to bring forth that absolute desire to hang onto life at that moment. Long-term dying makes it much easier to manifest that connection than the quicker yet still 'highly conscious of one's impending death' means of dying (such as my choking incidents.)

Until you go through such faster means of dying, you really don't know if you'll be able to blissfully dismiss the fear that automatically comes up.

I Have had three NDE if I died I would not have been able to come back.when the soul leaves or the cord breaks there is no coming back that is death.not everyone passes in pain some as so releaved to go they are waiting for death to come.i have seen this many times.i have not had an easy life and I remember being born and not wanting to be here.so for me life is hell on earth.i have suffered more than some people will ever be able to comprehend as of today I have had 31 surgeries.yet I am a medium and a councellor.i have worked with people all of my life been there at the end.and seen the smiles on their faces when they know they haven't got much longer,i have looked after people who are dying a slow painful death.but just at the poing of crossing for the pain to lift.death frightens some people. others welcome it

We, as a society, fear death mainly due to the big, black cloud created by Orthodoxy.

We are here for a short while and then we go somewhere else. A continuity of life. Not an end, merely a new chapter.
I'm in no rush to get there!!! but it will be a great adventure and whatever I find there, I will have earned.

Death can be a blessed release for many people whose minds and bodies no longer function as they should.

I think all of us who are spiritually aware have a duty to spread the message of survival and continuity - AND of life's purpose, why we're all here ....

__________________
All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.
If you set out each day to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.
And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.

I'm talking about physiology and psychology, not what happens to the spirit after the dying process is over, not the event of death itself. This thread was about the difference between the terms "dying" and "death" due how the physical process of dying can be fearful, as from pain and the duration of that suffering.

No matter how connected one is to spirit, anything that puts you into a situation were you may die, such as my choking experiences, simply cause fear. It's natural because your body is dying. It reacts with pain and those parts of your psyche that are afraid of leaving right now react with fear. Plus, it's difficult to imagine being in those situations until it happens to you. You still don't know how you're going to react until that moment.

Once you get past the hurdle of dying, then yes, death is easy. The fear is gone, the panic is gone, and all other psychological and physical barriers to death. You don't have to do anything. You're dead.

You had a bad experience which, quite understandably, impacted on your memory and subconsciously you have taken on board that 'this' is what dying is like.

But of course that isn't so. Death comes to us in many ways. Sometimes she lingers, but mostly she doesn't. People die peacefully in their sleep, or suddenly. I don't have figures, but lingering or 'dramatic' deaths like you are alluding to are not the norm.

A few times I have nearly choked! Not pleasant, but not a NDE. Things happen. It doesn't mean anything.

If you concentrate your thoughts on something you magnify its 'potency'. Thus a worry becomes a fear! Fear becomes panic!

Enjoy life. Render Service. When it's your 'time', it's your 'time'. No cause to worry. Make the most of now.

__________________
All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.
If you set out each day to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.
And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.

I agree with you. The dying process is what I am dreading. I believe in an afterlife so I am not so afraid of being dead just what happens as I am leaving. I think this might partly because our brains are wired for survival. Our body, despite some people mentally wanting to check out, does everything in it's power to live. So when we feel a threat to our ability to maintain life we go into panic and scramble to do everything we can to fight or flight away from danger. I guess maybe on some level, if we know we will not survive a particular illness we may make peace with the dying process and it becomes less traumatic but I'm definitely not looking forward to it but hopefully I get a kind that is quick and sudden and I am just out of my body without much fanfare. One can hope.